Library of Congress’ BIBFRAME Initiative: Part 2

As I described in Part 1, the Library of Congress’ “BIBFRAME” initiative is finally becoming a lot more public. With the release of the report cited in the previous post, details are now becoming a bit clearer on what the LOC envisions for our bibliographic future.

Not long after the release of that report, actual software for transforming existing MARC records (in MARCXML) to “BIBFRAME Resources” was released as open source. This enables anyone to experiment with the transformations and identify potential issues. Anything discovered is best reported to the BIBFRAME discussion, as some already have.

As Kevin Ford described in the email to the list in which he announced this:

There are two versions: one in Python and one in XQuery. The Python version produces JSON files for viewing in a Simile Exhibit presentation (also included). The XQuery version outputs RDF (as RDF/XML, N-triples, or JSON). Although the Python code expects to be invoked from the command line, the XQuery code can be invoked using Oxygen XML or the Eclipse IDE, in addition to a few other methods.

The XQuery is the product of Network Development and MARC Standards staff at LC; the Python version is the work of Zepheira. The two transformations were developed independently of each other. They therefore do not “split” MARC Bibliographic records into BIBFRAME Works, Instances, Authorities, and Annotations in the exact same way.

Both are subject to change. Neither is canonical. They are very much works in progress. As such, the names of properties and classes/entities are in flux and will invariably change in many cases. Sometimes, developers just need to do something to keep going, even if it is subject to alteration later (and often is modified). Nevertheless, we want to make these available for evaluation and to stimulate further conversation.

We are presently working on a way to better expose the output of these transformations to a wider audience. In the next several weeks, we hope to provide a service that will permit individuals to submit their own batch of MARC Bibliographic records for transformation. This way, you can see what *your* data might look like conforming to the BIBFRAME model.

I will be sure to let you know when such a service has been announced.

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Roy Tennant is a Senior Program Officer for OCLC Research. He is the owner of the Web4Lib and XML4Lib electronic discussions, and the creator and editor of Current Cites, a current awareness newsletter published every month since 1990. His books include "Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow" (2008), "Managing the Digital Library" (2004), "XML in Libraries" (2002), "Practical HTML: A Self-Paced Tutorial" (1996), and "Crossing the Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook" (1993). Roy wrote a monthly column on digital libraries for Library Journal for a decade and has written numerous articles in other professional journals. In 2003, he received the American Library Association's LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Excellence in Communication for Continuing Education. Follow him on Twitter @rtennant.